To maintain or improve local conditions for nesting bird populations

Action PR2

• Develop and appreciate scientific collaborations (priority 1)

Action CS23, 24

• Study of shore birds and their nesting habits

The Natural History Museum asked the Réserve Naturelle to be their go-between in Saint Martin. Antoine Chabrolle, advisor to the Museum and active with the National Network For Marine Birds, was particularly interested by the data produced concerning nesting marine birds, especially the least tern, the red-billed tropicbird, and the brown noddy. From March through June 2023, the Réserve counted the least terns at the salt ponds, as well as the red-billed tropicbird and the brown noddy at their coastal sites.

The data was sent to the Museum, as a means to augment the information already compiled from sites throughout the Caribbean.

A project for the protection of birds

known and certain species benefit from regular scientific monitoring, the same is not true for the rest of the island. It is to fill this gap that Vincent Lemoine, a naturalist fascinated by ornithology, has covered the entire French side, binoculars in hand. Commissioned by the LPO for the LIFE BIODIV’OM program as part of the ZICO (Zone of interest for the protection of birds), his goal for this project was to create a map of the species present on the island, starting by doing an inventory. As a result, Vincent Lemoine explored more than 130 sites between November 1, 2022 and February 28, 2023, and discovered a wide general diversity, divided among the salt ponds and the heights of Pic Paradis, as well as along the coasts, and observed 94 species of birds. He made a special mention of migrating species, with a minimum of 170 blue-winged teals at just one site, and he observed eight species of new world warblers. Shorebirds—sandpipers, greater yellowlegs, little ringed plovers—are often seen, as well as the presence of a group of 200 blackwing stilts, regrouped in a small corner of the pond. Tropicbirds are among the others who chose to live on the well-named Cliff of Birds, where at least three nests were noted with 15 individual birds observed. Vincent Lemoine also noted several differences between the ornithological history of Saint Martin and that of Guadeloupe. For example, if the three species endemic to the Lesser Antilles— the scaly-breasted thrasher, the purple-throated Carib hummingbird, and the bridled quail-dove (also present in Puerto Rico)—all live in Saint-Martin, they are very lightly represented, even rare for the latter two species, and the island does not have a single species endemic it to alone. On the other hand, certainly due to decreased activity, various hunted species are perhaps more numerous than in Guadeloupe. As for birds migrating from North America, their populations are more numerous than in the islands in the southern Caribbean, due to Saint Martin’s proximity to the North American continent. Shared species such as the black-faced grassquit, the bananaquit, the Zenaida dove, and the common ground dove are everywhere. There are also non-endemic species such as the Eurasian collared dove and the house sparrow, and a newcomer, the bare-eyed pigeon. The essential goal for this ornithologist is, outside to the sites already protected in the Réserve Naturelle, to reinforce the protection of birds by designating sites as the most important for conservation, such as Pic Paradis or the Cliff of Birds.

Axelle Verdière

Axelle Verdière, 24 years old, studied biological sciences at the University of Louvain in Belgium. With a Master 2 degree, she specialized in organism biology and in ecology. She did an internship at the Réserve at the end of her studies.

Alice Aune

Alice Aune, a Master candidate in environmental studies as well as student at the political science institute, served as an intern at the Réserve Naturelle in June and July 2022, to work on the two France Relance projects. She has worked on the definition of ecological preservation professions and measures that should be put into place for the management of protected zones. This is a field of particular interest to her, in terms of her professional future.

Flora Pouzeau

Flora Plouzeau, a 21-year-old student, spent her summer vacation with the Réserve Naturelle, while getting her undergraduate degree in the management and protection of nature at Cours Diderot in Montpellier. Her task was to take the reins from Alice Aune to work on the France Relance project for the extermination of rats on the island of Tintamarre. She went on the field, prepared digital dossiers to manage the data online and analyse the statistics, with Aude Berger, head of the project.

Study the birds to better understand them

To better understand the avifauna of the French West Indies: that is one of the goals of the French Office For Biodiversity (OFB), which encompasses the French Agency for Biodiversity (AFB) and National Office For Hunting And Wildlife, as of January 1, 2020. One of the ways to improve our knowledge about these birds is by banding them, and the OFB organized a training program on March 9-13 2020 in Guadeloupe. Focused primarily on the banding of shore birds, this training was important for Saint Martin, an island where the salt ponds have numerous and diverse avifauna. Led by two specialized ornithologists from the French National Museum of Natural History (MNHN) — which manages the issuing and fabrication of the bands, and maintains the only national registry for the identification of these birds —the goal of this training was to give the participants the theoretical and practical knowledge necessary to contribute locally to the regional study of shore birds, and to better understand the birds in the French West Indies. At the same time, the Réserve Naturelle agreed to installation of a radio antenna, which will record the passage of birds—primarily migratory species—thanks to a beacon that covers a diameter of 18 kilometers, as past of the international scientific project, Motus (see motus.org). Funded by BirdsCaribbean, this program, which is popular in the USA, Canada, and Europe, is limited in our region for the time being to the islands of Puerto Rico and Barbados, as well as French Guyana. The installation of two antennas is planned, one on Petite-Terre in Guadeloupe, and the other in Saint Martin. This radio system, which is much less costly than a GPS, is well adapted for birds and features a small harness with a miniature transmitter placed on the birds, which can be removed after several weeks of use, once their movements have been tracked. Locally, the same technology could be used to monitor various animal species.

ZICO: Zones of Importance for Bird Conservation. On April 1, 2019, to help define these high-priority sites, Julien Chalifour and Aude Berger, from the scientific division of the Réserve Naturelle, hosted a mission from the League For The Protection of Birds (LPO), as part of the European BIODIV’OM LIFE project. The goal was to initiate the process of defining ZICO for Saint Martin, which will be based on existing data and the acquisition of additional knowledge in order to delineate sites that represent major challenges for protected species, such as the little tern or blue egret. Once identified, a list of these high-priority zones will be presented to ornithology experts for validation, and certain zones will be added to the ZICO world list. Being included on the list would create new opportunities for the recruitment of experts and the funding of activities to promote the protection of birds on our island. This project comprises the Réserve Naturelle of Saint Martin, as well as five additional structures in French Guyana, Martinique, Reunion, and Mayotte. The LPO, coordinator of the BIODIV’OM LIFE project, serves as the liaison between the European Union and the six participating partners.

According to a study by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, amateur bird watchers brought 36 billion dollars to the American economy in 2006, and 20% of Americans identify as bird watchers. At the same time, the Kuşcenneti National Park in Turkey— a Ramsar site like Saint Martin—attracts amateur bird watchers from around the world. Thus represents direct and indirect revenue of more than $1million per year. Guided visits have become a major activity, with no less than 127 businesses offering visits around the globe. Knowing that the avifauna counted on the ponds of Saint Martin comprises more than 85 species of birds, this abundance and this richness have naturally encouraged the Réserve Naturelle and the Conservatoire du Littoral to promote the conservation of these species and their habitats, by way of development adapted at for public access at each site. The idea, in the absence of a tourism strategy other beach-oriented in Saint Martin, is to propose the development of eco-tourism based on bird watching, for which Saint Martin has perhaps the best potential for all of the Caribbean. For this to develop, it is necessary in parallel to expand the protection of coastal zones by developing them for properly for human activities. In the post-Irma context, at which time everyone agrees it is necessary to rethink our model for the development of coastal areas in Saint Martin, other than for their heritage value, the increase of eco-tourism in Saint Martin could be the answer. The Réserve estimates that a budget of 1.6 million euros is needed for the renewal of the salt ponds.